THE owner of a Merthyr Tydfil office block has been fined for failing to warn a construction company about the presence of asbestos while building work was being carried out.

Akbarali Pabani, 64, was told he would have to pay a £1,000 fine and costs of £8,416 for overlooking the presence of asbestos on the beams and in the walls of Oldway House, Castle Street.

Prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive Dean Baker told Merthyr Magistrates Court that it was not a deliberate oversight but rather the result of a miscommunication. Mr Pabani had not been aware that he needed a further survey to assess the asbestos after one was carried out in 2004. That survey had not assessed the asbestos that was hidden in the beams and walls and as such Mr Pabani pleaded guilty of not fulfilling his duty to manage the asbestos. Chair of the magistrates Steve Taylor said costs had been kept to a minimum and the fine a relatively low one in light of Mr Pabani’s mitigation that the company had been losing money and that he had invested near a million pounds into Oldway House.